If you are an avid viewer of Ghost Adventures and Most Haunted then it would be fair to assume that paranormal investigating is full of frights and jumps every night. If you also watch these shows you would also think that we get scratched and catch full body apparitions on camera on a regular basis. However, you would be wrong. These shows are created for entertainment purposes and to give the viewer a cheap scare. Not saying I don’t, love these shows, cause I do, but I am now fully aware that a lot of hours of filming go into one 45 minute long show.

When I first started doing investigations I was pretty scared, I’m not gonna lie. I expected spirits to whisper in my ear, to be pushed, scratched and intimidated. Maybe I haven’t been to the right places yet, but so far I haven’t experienced this. What I have experienced can’t be explained. What I have experienced is so subtle that a camera crew would not be able to capture it. Spirit does not have to be aggressive and obvious to be noticed. When you walk into a building and you suddenly cannot breath as the air and atmosphere is thick, how would a TV show convey this? When your heart starts pounding because you feel yourself being stared down by someone or something you cannot see, how would a TV show convey this? The majority of interaction with spirits can not be seen, only felt.

One thing we always mention to our guests at the beginning of investigations is that sometimes we might not get any communication at all. That is OK. Spirits are not performing monkeys, hanging out in buildings waiting for our beck and call. One thing that genuine paranormal groups will never do is fake evidence. We would rather the guests go away and think the night was ‘boring’ that make accusations that a group is faking activity. Paranormal groups strive off of their reputations and a cheap thrill will never come before integrity. So if your night with a local paranormal group DIDN’T seem like an episode of Most Haunted then I would say stick with that group, as sooner or later you never know what you might encounter, at least you know it wasn’t faked.

The paranormal industry is becoming saturated with people trying to get their five minutes of fame by releasing a video full of cheap jumps and obvious scare tactics that genuine videos of subtle paranormal evidence are getting overlooked. I have realised that something doesn’t have to jump out at you to show you it is there, if a spirit can communicate through a flickering light or by changing the atmosphere in the room then I am satisfied with the investigation.

Being told that you are going to be investigating 30 East Drive certainly stirs the emotions. I was so excited, I was getting to be a team member with Ghostly Goings On, and I was also scared, the house has a reputation for being terrifying. I was being thrown in at the deep end and I loved it.
My application form for the role of paranormal investigator with my local paranormal group had been shortlisted and I was to participate in some investigations to see if I was cut out to do this job. I had put the pressure on to rise to the challenge, I wanted to do a good job for the team and I wanted to prove to myself I could do this.

So on the 28th of September Becky, Simon and myself headed to Pontefract, in West Yorkshire, to head to the infamous 30 East Drive. I learned all about previous events at the house and the resident spirit Fred. People had been touched, people had seen dark shadows and people had heard voices. We were going to be sleeping over and I was told that previously other team members had their air beds lifted off the floor and someone’s belt, that was on the other side of the room, started to jangle. I was starting to crap myself a little, i’m not gonna lie.

We got to the house at about 6.15pm and as we entered we said hello to ‘Fred’ (I wasn’t going to risk disrespecting an angry spirit). We started to set up the equipment as the 9 other guests would be arriving at 8pm and Becky and Simon gave me a walk through of the house. These were some of the pictures I took.

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

When you first walk in there is a certain smell, it smells old and the decor is very dated which I think adds to the ambiance of the house. But one thing I cannot explain is the feeling as you walk upstairs, the weight of the house sweeps over you, it feels like you are wading through deep water. The atmosphere is heavy and oppressive, it is as if the air is thick with energy.

The guests started arriving at 8pm and we started the investigation at 8.30pm. We all congregated in the living room and set up various equipment around the lower part of the house. We put a 360 parascope in the dining room, which is a light activated static electricity meter (I think that is the technical description), and some light activated motion sensors in the hallway. While we were all sat in the living room, willing the spirits to make their presence known, the motion sensor lights would come on in the hall wall and the 360 parascope would start to light up in various shades of reds, greens and blues.

Some guests could see a dark shadow in the dining room right by where the parascope was detecting static electricity, and one lady felt like her face was burning (which has been a common response to the spirits in the house).

We went up into one of the bedrooms and tried to call out the spirits with the help of an p-sb7 box and an Alice Box app. The p-sb7 box scans through radio frequencies at high speed and spirits can use this to talk through. The Alice box is a programme that allows spirits to select words from a database in response to your questions.

When we were in the bedroom with the double bed on of the guests called Kat called out to fred ‘Come on Fred, show us what you got,’ and the Alice Box spelled out Dog. Then Kat said ‘Oi Fred, are you calling me a dog?’ and another piece of equipment called the Echovox (which uses a database of phonemes to audibly respond to questions) replied ‘Woof.’ Everyone in the room laughed so much, it was hilarious to see such a calculated and witty response and all the equipment coincided with each other.

People also reported getting touched my unseen forces, many guests had their head tickled or their back poked and there was many cold spots throughout the evening. I know from speaking to the other two investigators and guests that have been to 30 East Drive before, that this was a relatively quiet night in terms of activity. Well, if this was a quiet night I can’t image how active the other nights must be.

I had an amazing time at 30 East Drive and I can’t wait to participate in another investigation and I hope we get even more evidence.

Dolls can be creepy for a number of reasons, the lifeless eyes, the knowing smile, or the outstretched limbs that seem to be calling out to you. But nothing is creepier than the Island of the Dolls in Isla de las Munecas – 17 miles south of Mexico City, Mexico.

A little girl died in the canals nearby, so to honour her memory, people started to leave dolls for the spirit of the girl. Over time hundreds of dolls, some severed and tied from that neck, have been placed around the island.

The island is in fact a floating garden, known as a chinampa, which belonged to a man named Julian Santana Barrera, a hermit who lived isolated on the canal.

The creepy creation was discovered in the 1990s when the local council started clearing up the canal, since then the garden has been a popular tourist spot for people seeking the strange and unusual.

Mr Santana Barrera created the terrifying island in dedication of a little girl whose dead body he found floating in the canal near his home.

A few days later he discovered a small doll found in the same spot where the girl’s body was found, the believed her spirit was inside the doll. He hung the doll to the tree in her honour.

Over time he would collect dolls from rubbish tips and severed limbs from scrap piles to add to the shrine of the little girl. When locals found out about this island, Mr Santana Barrera became a bit of a celebrity and people would bring him dolls to add to the collection.

Bizarrely, in 2001 he was found dead in the canal, from drowning, in the exact spot where the little girl’s body had been found.

It would be interesting to see if such a small island, with such unusual objects and circumstances, would be haunted. I would personally love to visit Mexico and visit the Island. Maybe one day i could add a doll to the collection.

If anyone knows of any paranormal activity or investigations that have taken place here, please let me know!!

Sharon Tate (born January 24th 1943) was an American Actress during the 60s and was well know for her beauty and was often considered a sex symbol. She was hailed as a promising newcomer in Hollywood. She met her husband Roman Polanski while working on The Fearless Vampire Killers, and married him aged 25 in 1968. A few months later, she was pregnant with their first child, or so she should have been.

Tate was eight-and-a-half months pregnant when she was murdered in her home, along with four others, by a group known as the Manson Family on August 9, 1969. The bodies of Steven Parent, Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski were discovered by the Polanski housekeeper, Winifred Chapman, when she arrived for work the next morning.

Manson ordered his followers to enter the property on Cielo Drive and kill everyone in the house in the most brutal way possible. Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins and Charles “Tex” Watson entered the home determined. After coercing the four occupants of the house into the living room, they ordered them to lie face down on the floor. Sebring protested and asked the intruders to consider Tate’s advanced pregnancy. He was then shot by Watson, who kicked him several times in the face as he lay dying, breaking his nose and eye socket. He was then stabbed seven times and killed. The group then murdered Frykowski, Folger, and Tate.

Since the murders no one could stay in that house very long. The last resident to live in the house before it was demolished was Trent Reznor from the band, “Nine Inch Nails.” He moved out of the house in 1993 stating, “there was too much history in that house for me to handle.”

The home was located at 10050 Cielo Dr. just outside of Hollywood. It has since been torn down and the address has been changed to 10066 Cielo Drive and is now called “Villa Bella”. The location has a home next to the property owned by Hollywood producer, David Oman. He explains that he feels it is haunted and reports that strange things have been happening there.

But the hauntings and bad feelings in the home had been there long before the Manson murders. The house was originally built in 1941 and owned by actress Michele Morgan, who has reported to feel uneasy and frightened in her own home. Michele subsequently asked a female friend to move in to keep her company, but then she started to hear noises in the night so the vacated soon after.

A rumoured reason for this is that the Benedict Canyon area (where the house is located) is one of the most haunted in LA, and that scores of people living in this area continually report hauntings, and several tragedies took place in this area. Apparently the Canyons are a Native American burial ground, which could be a reason for the negative energy in the hills. George Reeves, who was the original Superman, committed suicide in his home in the are. His property is also believed to be haunted.

If you have time i would definitely recommend watching the Ghost Adventures Season 9 show where they investigate the Oman House which is a house just 200 feet from the Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski home. It is believed that some of the spirits are attracted to this house.

On the 8th of November 2013, me and my skeptic friend Connie went on an investigation at the famous Ancient Ram Inn. We joined paranormal group, Ghostly Goings On, they were extremely professional and a lovely group and am definitely going to go on another investigation with them.

Anyways, i have wanted to visit the Ram since i saw the Ghost Adventures Episode a few years ago, it look genuinely terrifying and Zac, Nick and Aaron seemed petrified. So it was a must see location.

I am very new to paranormal investigations but it has always been something that i have wanted to do, i have gathered some good quality equipment over the past few months from a high quality voice recorder, laser grid and a Spirit box(the one used on Ghost Adventures).

Anyways there was a group of about 20 of us, and then 4 members of the paranormal group so we split off into 4 small groups and went into different rooms. The place is very creepy as it is all in its original condition with low ceilings and creaky floor boards, but it isn’t very big. Trying to do EVPs was difficult as you could hear everyone in the adjacent rooms, but at least we had the entire place to ourselves, unlike my previous investigation which was full of other guests.

We started off down in the main reception room, next to John Humpfries living room and immediately got out an ouija board, me and Connie refused to take part as i don’t really think these are things to be messed with/don’t enjoy doing them. It was relatively quiet for the first 15 minutes, no movement on the board, but there were pockets of extremely cold air in the room.

Eventually the glass on the board started moving, unfortunately the other women around the board were more interested in contacting their deceased relatives than finding out about the spirits on the property. The team member from the paranormal group tried to divert the women back to the reason we were there, the spirits at the ram inn, but they seemed to just want to talk to their mum, brother, sister, dad.

Every first letter of a name was being pre-determined, as it shifted towards the M ‘Oh is this Micheal by son?’, then as if my sheer chance, the glass glided over to Yes.

Then a rupture of coos and words of amazement filled the group of women. Apart from Connie, the team member and Me of course. Not saying that their family members wouldn’t have came through, but it would have been more amazing had they mentioned my nan’s name, or Connie’s nan’s name…..since our hands weren’t the ones manipulating the glass.

Anyway, after that the groups alternated to different rooms, we ended up sat on the beds in the Bishops room. I used this opportunity to get out my Spirit Box so see if we could chat to spirits that way, whereas the other women jumped on the Ouija board to try and get Aunt Merryls secret recipe for soup.

The two male team members and i sat around the bed trying to get contact on the Spirit Box, we heard names like ‘Steve’ (which was the team members name) and ‘Meows’ (apparently there is a cat haunting the room). I was impressed by this voice that came up, it is very quiet as, unlike the guys on Ghost Adventures, i didn’t have a speaker for the device.

Shortly after this me and one of the team leaders saw a ball of light floating my the wall, we tried to debunk it by reflecting a torch on a shiny service but couldn’t recreate it. We were also amazed by the fact that the ball remained circular, where as if it was a reflection it would have deflected or bent as it went passed the beams on the wall.

I wouldn’t say i felt really scared in this room, it was eerie, but not scary. No one got pushed or touched in the Bishops Room.

Next we headed to the Barn Room. We literally just sat and tried to make contact through asking the spirits to knock or bang on walls for us. The team leader Chris then requested we turn off all torches to be in complete darkness. Could have killed him HA. I was petrified in the darkness. With a torch i am OK, but when you can’t see your own hand in front of your face, i could have died.

Shortly after we turned the lights back on, and started to capture this video on my phone…..

So, i was just freaking myself out, rather than capturing anything amazing. The most amazing thing i did capture was this picture of a man walking down the infamous stairs in the Ancient Ram Inn. Mists and shadows have been caught here before, and people have even been pushed down the stairs, here is what i caught. These pictures were taken literally a second apart.

Now, people have tried to say ‘Oh it is just camera glare’, i understand what glare is and the picture is taken from exactly the same angle. If my flash had hit a mirror or shiny object, it would have been in both pictures. I personally am pretty damn chuffed with this. Ha.

I would say it was a very good night, but i would like to go back again to see if i get more activity. I would prefer to go back in a smaller group maybe just 5 – 10 this time.

I would love to hear your comments on what you think of the pictures or videos!

I have always fancied the idea of being a paranormal investigator. However, liking the idea of doing something and actually being brave enough to do something, are two completely different things. So last month i bit the bullet, and signed up to take part in a Ghost Investigation at the Littledean House Hotel in Gloucestershire. I am not going to name what company i did the tour with as i do not want to slander anyone’s reputation as this is just my own personal opinion of the nights.

I noticed that this company were charging about £40 less than most other companies, and being a poor student, i decided to go with the cheaper option. My friend and i signed up to a ‘Ghost hunt, from 7pm – 3am including a free meal for £25’ BARGAIN. So we turned up at 6.45 the Hotel was lively and the Paranormal group were greeting guests in the bar area, everyone seemed really friendly and i couldn’t wait to get started.

Apparently i was going to have to wait a few hours. The first hour was spent counting heads in the room, what members were in the room, who had cancelled and who had pre booked tickets e.t.c. We were told to stop talking as the group leader was trying to count the 25 people in the room (repeatedly forgetting herself) i looked at my friend in disbelief and she had the same look on her face. We eventually sat down for a measly bowl of chips at 8.30 and began to converse with the other people taking part in the investigation. I had the feeling that 80% of the group were regulars and had continued to book with the Paranormal group.

After the meal the 25 of us were put into smaller groups to go investigate the Hotel, but we werent allowed to enter rooms 1 – 8 as they were already occupied by guests, we were left with room 9 & 10, the dining room, the entrance and the downstairs bedroom. This information immediately bent me out of shape, how were we supposed to conduct a serious investigation when there were other guest there, surely this would contaminate any EVPs we capture? Anyway, the Paranormal group then handed out various Ouija boards to the individual groups and said ‘Have fun!!’ so we bundled ourselves into the downstairs bedroom. I am no expert on the paranormal but even i knew that Ouija boards weren’t something to just mess around with for a laugh.

I was really interested in capturing EVPs during the investigation, but this was made near impossible due to the large groups of people walking in and out of rooms, laughing out load and just making lots of noise, period. After playing with Oujia board, i felt that the other ladies were jumping to conclusions with names after the first letter appeared. The glass would move to ‘C’ – ‘OMG its Colin my uncle’. The glass would move to ‘M’ – ‘OMG its Malcolm’. I do believe in ghosts, i wouldnt have this blog if i were a skeptic, but even i like to have proof, and back things up with fact. I felt it was a case of ‘Self fulfilling prophecies’, making things fit into what they were expecting to get from the Ouija board.

Next the whole group was invited up to room 10. We all congregated on the bed and on the floor. It was here that a lot of the group shared that they were psychic, so when one person said aloud ‘Oh i am getting a sharp pain in my head’, suddenly everyone else started feeling a ‘sharp pain in their head’. I was stood there at the back of the room, not feeling anything, and i felt like i was missing out. Missing out on an experience that seemed to engulf everyone else in the room apart from me and my friend. Was i missing out or was i just being rational, i didn’t come here for the experience i came here to investigate, and if that meant that i didn’t feel anything paranormal then so be it.

Upon signing up to the investigation i researched the Hotel, and there was not one indication of it being a haunted location, it still may not be a haunted location. I felt that there were too many people who were desperate for an experience that all rationality went out the window. In the evening 5 ladies were sat on an old wooden bench and they heard a creak, instead of assuming ‘Well it could have been one of us shifting our weight and making the bench creak’, they jumped straight to the conclusion that it was a Ghost.

I more than anyone would have liked to have captured something amazing, yes i got Orb pictures and a questionable EVP, but there was too many contaminates to determine it was paranormal in any way. I think that the next investigation i do has to be more controlled, an empty building with fewer researchers, so i can determine what i capture it more legit. Maybe i was expecting to much for the Paranormal Group, but i felt like the evening was a complete shambles, maybe i take this thing too seriously.

But if i don’t take it seriously then how do i expect the readers of this blog to take it seriously?

My best friend Ben and i used to love going for late night walks in spooky locations. His parents lived very near the grounds of Battle Abbey, where the Battle Of Hastings was fought at Senlac Hill and reportedly the site of the death of Harold Godwin slaughtered by William the Conquerors men in 1066.

We would take our food and our drink and spend an hour or two sitting on the battle field talking about life, girlfriends, music, the future……and then we’d walk around the ruins of the Abbey and head home. We would do this regularly without incident.

This one evening in late Summer, when we were both Eighteen, the light was failing and we were walking around the old cloisters when we heard a fluttering of wings in one corner. We both looked in the direction of the sound and both saw EXACTLY the same thing……there was a mist forming and slowly it began to take what looked like human form. We were rooted to the spot as the misty shadow shape got larger and more pronounced. I think we stood there unable to move for no longer than 30 seconds but it felt like an eternity and we both had this same feeling of “oh Shit!”

We came out of our trance and both looked at each other and screamed literally and ran……..we ran all the way home like kids half our age……..our hearts racing it took us a good hour or so to calm down, we were verging between laughing and crying and to this day we still do not know exactly what we saw. We know it was something, and we know it was something other worldly that had had a pronounced effect on us. We both agree it wasn’t a pleasant or friendly too.

Further reseaarch on The Abbey: “THERE ARE MANY STORIES OF GHOSTS BEING
SEEN AROUND BATTLE ABBEY.THE MOST
FAMOUS IS PROBABLY THE COWLED MONK WHO
LAID A CURSE ON THE OCCUPANTS
AFTER THE DISSOLUTION,SAYING
THAT THEY WOULD DIE BY FIRE OR WATER.
THERE ARE OTHER REPORTS OF MONKS BEING
SEEN IN THE GROUNDS AT NIGHT.A WHITE
LADY HAUNTS THE GATE-HOUSE AND ON THE
ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS
CRIES OF MEN AND HORSES CAN BE HEARD
FROM THE BATTLEFIELD AND KING HAROLD
HAS BEEN SEEN WITH AN ARROW IN HIS
EYE.AT CHRISTMAS 1984 TWO GROUPS OF
GIRLS SAW INDEPENDENTLY A WHITE FIGURE
ON THE GALLERY IN THE ABBOT’S HALL
WHICH THEN MOVED ACROSS TO THE ABBOT’S
CHAPEL.NO LOGICAL EXPLANATION HAS BEEN
FOUND FOR THIS.THERE ARE OTHER STORIES
OF MYSTERIOUS FIGURES AND SHADOWS IN
THE SCHOOL AT NIGHT,NOT ALL OF WHICH
ARE IMAGINED. ”